Chris Moneymaker Wins $360 Omaha Hi-Lo, Second Win in as Many Days

2018 Rock N’ Roll Poker Open 
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino 
Hollywood, Florida
Event 2
$360 Omaha Hi-Lo 
Entries: 96 
Prize Pool: $28,800 
November 14, 2018 

Chris Moneymaker wins $360 Omaha hi-lo

Chris Moneymaker made his way to South Florida for the Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood stop of the Moneymaker tour. He’s been crushing it ever since.

The 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion finished second in his own event and followed that up with a win in the Charity event on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, he kept the heater alive with his second Hard Rock Trophy in as many days.

Moneymaker defeated 96 entries in the $360 Omaha hi-lo event, defeating 96 entries and earning $9,136. Out of all of his appearances on the country-wide tour, this has got to be one of his most profitable stops.

Profit isn’t his main motivator anymore. Now he’s all about having fun at the table and that’s been the main goal of the tour. In the process, he’s had a great time as well.

“It’s been awesome. I mean, it’s been a really fun tour. It’s been very relaxing,” said Moneymaker about the entire five-month tour. “I mean, everybody having a good time. You know, poker is supposed to be enjoyed and this whole tour is about enjoyment. It was just easy to play poker where everybody is having a good time. There’s not any pressure. It’s just a game.”

Moneymaker was on a tear throughout the final table. He went wire-to-wire with the chip lead at the final table. He had more than two-thirds of the chips in play with four players left and started heads-up play with 1 million of the 1.2 million chips in play.

With such a big chip lead, it’s no shock that Perry Klein didn’t last that long heads-up before finishing runner-up to Moneymaker. Klein took home $5,472 for his efforts.

The Tennessee native is synonymous with no-limit hold’em. Many give him most of the credit for starting the modern poker boom. But it’s very rare that his name comes up in conversations about mixed games.

That’s not an indication of his skill level. Moneymaker enjoys the non-hold’em games and has the results to back it up.

“I win a lot of mix tournaments,” said Moneymmaker. “When I play mix, I generally do pretty well. I won several mix tournaments online in New Jersey, I won Monte Carlo and I really enjoy mix.”

It has been 15 years since Moneymaker defeated Sam Farha heads-up in the world’s most prestigious tournament. He is one of the few people that was at the game’s highest levels for the entirety of the modern poker era.

He’s seen the rapid development in strategy and learned what it takes to stay ahead of the curve.

“It’s just been so different,” said Moneymaker. “It’s just not the same as it was. I mean, I put a lot of work in to improve my game and to get up with the current times and try and be competitive. For a long time, I took the game for granted, I fell behind the times and I just said ‘you know, I need to continually work on my game or this game’s not going to be there for me 15 years from now.'”

The Rock N’ Roll Poker Open is the final stop on the Moneymaker tour and the ’03 world champ is only around to play one more event. He’ll try his luck in Thursday’s $360 HORSE before heading back home.

The 96-entry field paid out the top 12 spots and here are the  results:

1st: Chris Moneymaker – $9,136
2nd: Perry Klein – $5,472
3rd: Claudangelo Beaudouin – $3,456
4th: Georges Boyadjian – $2,232
5th: Scott Brooks – $1,728
6th: Zachary Milchman – $1,368
7th: Monte Adler – $1,152
8th: Charles Jacoby – $1,008
9th: Daniel Brown – $914
10th: Gabriel Ramos – $835
11th: Lazaro Rodriguez – $778
12th: Cory Blum – $721